Disk drive head positioner with thin-film air-flow adjusting mechanism, thin film member and method of manufacturing

ABSTRACT

A disk drive ( 10 ) includes a plurality of thin-film members ( 36 ) for respectively covering the desired contour portions in a plurality of suspension arms ( 26 ) of an actuator ( 20 ). Each thin-film member ( 36 ) is fixedly attached to the surface of the suspension arm to cover the contour portion around a through hole ( 34 ) formed in the corresponding suspension arm ( 26 ) for reducing the moment of inertia, so as to cover the through hole. The thin-film member ( 36 ) substantially makes the contour portion around the through hole of the suspension arm ( 26 ) flush, and the air flow caused around the storage disks ( 16 ) rotating at high speed is guided smoothly along this contour portion. As a result, the air flow is stabilized, and the influences such as vibration on the actuator ( 20 ) are suppressed.

This application is a 371 of PCT/US02/23326 Jul. 22, 2002.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a disk drive for writing and readingdata into and from a storage disk, and particularly to a disk drivehaving an air-flow adjusting mechanism for adjusting the air flowgenerated around the storage disk rotating at high speed. The presentinvention also relates to a method of producing such a disk drive. Thepresent invention further relates to a thin-film member incorporated asan air-flow adjusting mechanism in such a disk drive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a disk drive used as an auxiliary device for an informationprocessing system, any of various disk-shaped storage media (referred toas the storage disk in this specification) such as a magnetic disk, anoptical disk and a magneto-optic disk is rotated at high speed, while ahead section is caused to perform the tracking operation following amultiplicity of recording tracks formed concentrically on the recordingsurface of the recording disk thereby to read and write data. Thetracking performance of the head section depends on the positioningaccuracy in the servo control operation of an actuator supporting thehead section. Especially in recent years, with the remarkable increasein the recording density of the storage disk, demand has becomeconsiderably exacting for the positioning accuracy of the actuator.

For the actuator to perform the highly accurate tracking operation, theexternal disturbances affecting the operation of the actuator arerequired to be minimized. For example, the air flow generated around thestorage disk in high-speed rotation becomes turbulent by bombarding theactuator and may cause vibration of the actuator and the storage disk.Especially in a configuration like a hard disk drive in which theactuator has a suspension arm extending along the recording surface ofthe storage disk and rotatable about a supporting shaft, the suspensionarm is vibrated by the turbulent air flow and can adversely affect thepositioning accuracy of the head and the dimensional accuracy of the gapbetween the head and the recording surface of the disk.

To cope with this problem, various disk drives have been proposed whichinclude an air-flow adjusting mechanism for adjusting the air flowgenerated around the storage disk rotating at high speed. Thespecification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,725, for example, discloses a harddisk drive having a plurality of guide members mounted on the surface ofthe arm of the actuator. These guide members are each a small piece inthe shape of a streamline or a wedge and are fixed on the upstream ordownstream side of the arm surface by an adhesive or the like. Eachguide member smoothly guides the air flow around the storage diskrotating at high speed, along the outer surface of the actuator arm, andthus converts the air flow into a laminar flow thereby reducing theeffect that the vibration caused by the air flow has on the arm.

Also, the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,612 discloses a hard diskdrive wherein a wing is formed on the arm of the actuator. The wing ofthe arm, receiving the air flow caused by the rotation of the storagedisk, generates a force whereby the head at the forward end of the armapproaches the disk. As a result, the head bearing operation isstabilized and the dimensional accuracy of the gap between the head andthe recording surface of the disk is improved.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-23347 disclosesa hard disk drive having air rectification wings inserted between aplurality of storage disks and arranged at predetermined spatialintervals over the range of head movement downstream of the head at theforward end of the arm of the actuator in the direction of diskrotation. The air rectification wings have a streamlined section forrectifying the air flow between the disks in the vicinity of the arm andthus suppresses the vibration of the disk and the arm. In similarfashion, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-228079discloses a hard disk drive having comb-shaped rectification membersinserted between a plurality of arms of the actuator.

Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) Nos. 5-101557 and5-100061 disclose a hard disk drive for reducing the shock at the timeof starting or stopping the operation of the arm, by mounting an elasticmember or a buffer member on the arm of the actuator or covering the armrotation shaft with a damping member.

In the conventional hard disk drive, for example, a through hole or anotch is generally formed at a predetermined position of the arm toreduce the weight of the suspension arm and thus to reduce the moment ofinertia of the suspension arm when the actuator is in operation. Withthis configuration, the through hole or the notch, as the case may be,causes a great turbulent air flow along the outer surface of thesuspension arm, which in combination with the reduced weight of thesuspension arm, may vibrate the suspension arm more readily.

In the various conventional air-flow adjusting mechanisms describedabove, it is difficult to directly suppress the turbulence of the airflow caused by the through hole or the notch formed in the suspensionarm in order to reduce the moment of inertia. Further, with the increasein the number of suspension arms, the configuration of the air-flowadjusting mechanism is more complicated, with the result that themanufacturing process may be complicated or the production cost mayincrease. Also, it may be that the air-flow adjusting mechanismdescribed above fails to work effectively on the other disk driveshaving no suspension arm.

An object of the present invention is to provide a disk drive forwriting and reading data into and from a storage disk, comprising aninexpensive and easily mountable air-flow adjusting mechanism foradjusting the air flow caused around the storage disk rotating at highspeed, and thus capable of suppressing, among others, the effect thatthe vibration caused by the air flow has on the actuator.

Another object of the invention is to provide a disk drive comprising asuspension arm extending along the recording surface of a storage diskand rotatable about a supporting shaft and an air-flow adjustingmechanism capable of directly preventing the turbulence of the air flowcaused by the through hole or the notch formed in the suspension arm toreduce the moment of inertia.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a method ofproducing such a disk drive easily at low cost. A further object of theinvention is to provide a thin-film member capable of beingincorporated, as an air-flow adjusting mechanism, in a disk drive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the invention provides a disk drive comprising arotatable storage disk having a recording surface; an actuator carryinga head section to be opposed to the recording surface of the storagedisk and causing the head section to perform a tracking operationrelative to the recording surface; and an air-flow adjusting mechanismfor adjusting an air flow generated around the storage disk due to arotation of the storage disk; wherein the air-flow adjusting mechanismincludes a thin-film member fixedly attached to a surface of theactuator to cover a desired contour portion of the actuator, and thethin-film member acts to stabilize the air flow along the contourportion.

The actuator typically will include a pivotable suspension arm extendingalong the recording surface of the storage disk with the thin-filmmember attached to a surface of the suspension arm to cover a contourportion of the suspension arm. A through hole is formed in the contourportion of the suspension arm, and the thin-film member covers thethrough hole. The thin-film member may comprise a tubularheat-shrinkable resinous film layer attached to the surface of theactuator by a heat shrinkage of the heat-shrinkable resinous film layer.Alternatively, the thin-film is a resinous film layer with an adhesivelayer attached to one surface of the resinous film layer, the thin-filmmember fixedly attached to the surface of the actuator through theadhesive layer. The thin-film member includes a vibration dampingpolymer layer for reducing vibration and/or shock levels of theactuator.

An airflow adjusting mechanism is also provided with a surface forreducing vibration impact force between a casing of the disk drive andthe storage disk by reducing peak shock or vibration levels as caused byan impact to the casing. The airflow adjusting mechanism is alsoprovided with at least one function selected from an anti-staticfunction, a bias regulating function, an electromagnetic-interferenceshielding function and a radio-frequency-interference shieldingfunction, for the disk drive.

In another aspect, the invention provides a method of providing a diskdrive having an air-flow adjusting mechanism for adjusting an air flowgenerated around a storage disk in rotation, the method comprising (i)providing an actuator carrying a head section opposed to a recordingsurface of a storage disk; (ii) providing a heat-shrinkable thin-filmmember that is shaped and dimensioned to enable the thin-film member tocover a desired contour portion of the actuator after heat shrinkage ofthe thin-film member; (iii) arranging the thin-film member at a positionfor covering the contour portion of the actuator; and (iv) heating thethin-film member to shrink, so as to fixedly attach the thin-film memberto a surface of the actuator while covering the contour portion of theactuator.

In still another aspect, the invention provides a thin-film memberincorporated, as an air-flow adjusting mechanism, in a disk drive as setforth herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a disk drive according to a firstembodiment of the invention with the casing cover removed.

FIG. 2 is an exploded plan view showing the actuator and the thin-filmmember of the disk drive of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the thin-film member of FIG. 2 inenlarged form.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method of fabricating a disk driveaccording to an embodiment of the invention, in which (a) is a plan viewbefore the state of the thin-film member before shrinkage, and (b) thestate of the thin-film member after shrinkage.

FIG. 5 is a partly enlarged side view of the actuator with the thin-filmmember fixed at a predetermined position in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the thin-film member accordingto another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a partly enlarged side view of the actuator with the thin-filmmember fixed at a predetermined position in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the thin-film member accordingto a modification.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged perspective view of the thin-film member accordingto another modification.

FIGS. 10( a) to (e) are enlarged sectional views of the thin-film memberaccording to still other modifications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred embodiment of the present invention will be explained indetail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In thedrawings, the same component elements are designated by the samereference numerals, respectively.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a diskdrive 10 according to an embodiment of the invention with the casingcover thereof removed, and FIG. 2 is an exploded plan view showing theessential parts of the actuator of the disk drive 10. The disk drive 10has a configuration of a hard disk unit used as an auxiliary storageunit of an information processing system such as a personal computer.

The disk drive 10 comprises a casing 12, a plurality of (three in thedrawing) storage disks 16 arranged rotatably about a common drive shaft14 in the casing 12 and each having a recording surface 16 a, a drivesource (not shown) for rotationally driving the storage disks 16. Anactuator 20 is movably arranged in the casing 12 in the vicinity of thestorage disks 16 for supporting a plurality of head sections 18 inopposed relation to the recording surface 16 a of the storage disks 16and the actuator activating the head sections 18 to perform the trackingoperation following the recording surface 16 a, and a servo mechanism 22for driving the actuator 20.

The casing 12 has a rigid structure fabricated of a metal material, forexample, through the casting process and has a bottomed recess 24 forstably accommodating the above-mentioned main essential parts of thedisk drive 10. A cover (not shown) for covering the recess 24 is mountedon the casing 12 with the main essential parts accommodated in therecess 24.

The storage disks 16 are magnetic disks having a recording surface 16 aon the two surfaces thereof, and each recording surface 16 a is formedwith a multiplicity of recording tracks (not shown) concentrically aboutthe rotation axis. The plurality of the storage disks 16 are mountedfixedly on a common drive shaft 14 at predetermined intervals along theaxis, and rotated (in the direction indicated by arrow α) at high speedin synchronism with each other by the driving action of a drive source.

The actuator 20 includes a plurality of (four in the drawing) suspensionarms 26 each extending along the recording surface 16 a of the storagedisk 16 and rotatable about a supporting shaft. The suspension arms 26are coupled integrally to each other at the base ends thereof and theintegrally coupled portions 26 a are mounted on a common shaft 28. Theend of each suspension arm 26 is coupled with a head supporting plate30, like a spring plate, and a slider 32 (see FIG. 5) making up the headsection 18 carried at an end of each head supporting plate 30. Theplurality of suspension arms 26 are rotated about the shaft 28 insynchronism with each other over a predetermined angular range (in thedirection indicated by arrow β) by the driving action of a servomechanism 22. As a result, the head section 18 at the forward end of thehead supporting plate 30 coupled to each suspension arm 26 performs thetracking operation on the recording tracks set on the recording surface16 a of the corresponding storage disk 16 thereby to write or read thedata into or from the recording surface 16 a.

The actuator 29 is formed with a through hole 34 (FIG. 2) at about thecentral portion of each suspension arm 26 to reduce the weight of eacharm 28 and thereby to reduce the moment of inertia of the plurality ofthe suspension arms 28 in operation. With this configuration, the airflow generated around the plurality of the recording disks 16 rotatingat high speed at the time of the actuator operation, i.e. at the time ofreading or writing data bombards the plurality of the suspension arms 26of the actuator 20 while at the same time causing a great turbulent flowat the position of the through hole 34 of each arm 26 resulting in thelikelihood of causing a vibration not negligible of the suspension arms26. In view of this, the disk drive 10 is equipped with an air-flowadjusting mechanism having the following configurational featureswhereby the effect that the vibration or the like caused by the airflow, in particular, has on the actuator 20 can be effectivelysuppressed.

The air-flow adjusting mechanism of the disk drive 10 includes aplurality of thin-film members 36 for covering the desired contourportion of the plurality of the suspension arms 26 of the actuator 20.Each thin-film member 36 surrounds the contour portion around thethrough hole 34 of the corresponding suspension arm 26 over the twosurfaces of the arm and is fixed on the main surface of the suspensionarm 26 thereby to cover the through hole 34 on the two surfaces of thearm. The thin-film member 36 having this configuration smoothes thecontour portion around the through hole substantially and functions toguide the air flow smoothly along the contour portion thereby tostabilize the air flow substantially into a laminar flow. As a result,the effect that the vibration or the like caused by the air flow has onthe actuator 20 can be very effectively suppressed. Also, theabove-mentioned configuration in which the thin-film member 36 having asimple structure is fixed at the desired position of the suspension arm26 contributes to the simplification of the production process and areduced production cost of the disk drive 10.

The thin-film member 36, as shown in FIG. 3, has a substantiallytrapezoidal hollow cylindrical structure in plan view corresponding tothe contour around the through hole 34 of the suspension arm 26. Withthis structure, even in the configuration of the shown embodiment inwhich the actuator 20 has a plurality of the suspension arms 26, thethin-film member 36 can be easily mounted at the desired position of thecorresponding suspension arm 26 by inserting, the forward end first ofthe head supporting plate 39 coupled to the suspension arm 26, into thehollow portion of the thin-film member 36.

The hollow cylindrical thin-film member 36 can be fixed on the surfaceof the suspension arm 26 through, for example, an adhesive. Forsimplifying the work of fixing the thin-film member 36, however, thethin-film member 36 is advantageously configured to have a cylindricalheat-shrinkable resinous film layer. In this configuration, thethin-film member 36 can be very easily fixed on the surface of thesuspension arm 26 by the heat shrinkage of the heat-shrinkable resinousfilm layer. Incidentally, the whole of the thin-film member 36 may beformed of a heat-shrinkable resinous film layer or the thin-film member36 can be formed as a multilayer structure including a heat-shrinkableresinous film layer. In any case, the thin-film member 36 is formed of aresin material by which the weight can be easily reduced to suppress theincrease in the moment of inertia of the suspension arm 26.

The thin-film member 36 having a cylindrical heat-shrinkable resinousfilm layer is fixed on the suspension arm 26 of the actuator 20 byfollowing the procedures described below.

First, an actuator 20 having a suspension arm 26 for supporting the headsection 18 is prepared, while at the same time preparing a thin-filmmember 36 having the original size and the original shape that cancover, after heat shrinkage, the contour portion around the through hole34 of the suspension arm 26 (FIG. 2). Then, the head supporting plate 30coupled to the suspension arm 26 is inserted, the forward end thereoffirst, into the hollow portion of the thin-film member 36, and thethin-film member 36 is arranged at a position surrounding the contourportion around the through hole 34 of the suspension arm 26 (FIG. 4(a)).By shrinking the thin-film member 36 by heating it to a predeterminedtemperature, the thin-film member 36 is fixed on the surface of thesuspension arm 26 with the contour portion around the through hole 34covered while at the same time covering the through hole 34 (FIG. 4(b)).

The oriented polyester film having the trade name “HISHIPET” or theoriented polystyrene film having the trade name “DXL” that can beacquired from Mitsubishi Resin (Tokyo, Japan) can be cited as an exampleof a material suitably used for the heat-shrinkable resinous film layerof the thin-film member 36. In this case, the “HISHIPET” film having athickness of 30 micrometers (μm) to 50 μm or the “DXL” film having athickness of 40 μm to 80 μm can be acquired. Either material can obtaina superior shrinkage/fixing function by being heated to the temperaturerange of about 100° C. to 160° C. in the fixing process of the thin-filmmember 36 described above. In the case where the disk drive 10 isexposed to about this temperature in a predetermined step of theproduction process, the heating step intended solely for heat shrinkageof the thin-film member 36 can be eliminated by arranging the thin-filmmember 36 not yet shrunk at a predetermined position of the suspensionam 26 as described above before the otherwise required heating step.

In the air-flow adjusting mechanism of the disk drive 10, a tabularthin-film member 38 shown in FIG. 6 can be employed in place of thehollow thin-film member 36 described above. In such a case, thethin-film member 38 includes a substantially trapezoidal resinous filmlayer 40 in plan view conforming with the contour around the throughhole 34 of the suspension arm 26 and an adhesive film layer 42 attachedto one surface of the resinous film layer 40.

The thin-film member 38 is fixed on the surface of the suspension arm 26through the adhesive layer 42 while covering the contour portion aroundthe through hole 34 of the suspension arm 26 preferably on one surface(the upper surface in FIG. 7) of the arm. Also with the thin-film member38 having this configuration, the contour portion around the throughhole 34 can be substantially smoothed by covering the through hole 34 ofthe suspension arm 26 on one surface of the arm. As a result, the airflow along this contour portion is smoothly guided and stabilizedsubstantially into a laminar flow. Thus, the effect that the vibrationor the like caused by the air flow has on the actuator 20 can be veryeffectively suppressed. By the way, the thin-film member 38 canalternatively be fixed on the two surfaces of the suspension arm 26.

The material of resinous film layer 40 of the thin-film member 38 is notlimited, but a film made of, e.g., polyethylene terephthalate (PET),polypropylene, polyethylene or polyimide may be employed. Also, theadhesive layer 42 may be made of a general type of a pressure sensitiveadhesive, and preferably of an acrylic adhesive. In this case, it ispreferable to use the PET resinous film layer 40 having a thickness of25 μm to 100 μM and the adhesive layer 42 having a thickness of 25 μm to100 μm in an appropriate combination.

For the resinous film layer 40 of the thin-film member 38, not only afilm having a smooth main surface on the other side of the adhesivelayer 42 but a film having minute unevennesses on the main surface canbe employed. Such a film may be a film having a multiplicity of minuteridges 44 shown in FIG. 8 or a film having a multiplicity of minuteprotrusions 46 shown in FIG. 9. In any case, the unevenness on the mainsurface of the resinous film layer 40 exhibits the above-mentionedfunction of rectifying the air flow caused around the storage disks 16rotating at high speed, by fixing the thin-film member 38 in the properdirection on the surface of the suspension arm 26. As a result, thestabilization of the air flow is promoted, and the effect that thevibration or the like caused by the air flow has on the actuator 20 issuppressed even more effectively.

As other examples of the minute ridges 44 formed preferably on theresinous film layer 40, the shapes shown in the sectional views of FIGS.10( a) to (e) can be cited, which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.4,986,496, 5,069,403, 5,133,516 and 5,848,769. With the minute ridges 44of various shapes shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, the height of each ridge 44(distance from the base end to the top) is preferably 20 μm to 400 μm,the angle at the crossing of the V-shaped base end (i.e. the valley) ispreferably 15° to 140°, and the interval between the tops of adjacentridges 44 is preferably 20 μm to 400 μm. The minute ridges 44 in any ofthese shapes can exhibit the function of rectifying the air floweffectively by securing the proper directivity of the thin-film member38 on the surface of the actuator 20.

For the adhesive layer 42 of the thin-film member 38, a viscoelasticdamping tape that can be acquired in the trade name of “Scotch Damp”(Model JPV115 or 242F01) from Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing(Minnesota, USA) can be employed, instead of the general type of apressure sensitive adhesive. In such a case, the adhesive layer 42itself can also exhibit the damping effect as a vibration dampingpolymer layer, and therefore the vibration and/or shock levels of theactuator 20 can be suppressed even more effectively.

Preferable embodiments of the invention have been described above. Thepresent invention, however, is not limited to the configurations of theshown embodiments, but can be variously modified or changed withoutdeparting from the scope of the claims. For example, the disk drive andthe method of manufacturing it according to the present invention areapplicable to disk drives having storage disks such as the optical diskor the magneto-optic disk other than the magnetic disk. Also, for thedisk drive having a direct acting actuator having no suspension arm, forexample, the effect that the air flow has on the actuator can beeffectively suppressed by employing a thin-film member fixed on thesurface of the actuator by covering the desired contour portion of theactuator as an air-flow adjusting mechanism. Further, instead of thethrough hole, various contour portions of the actuator having a notch ora step or the like liable to cause a turbulent air flow can be coveredwith the thin-film member.

The airflow adjusting mechanism in the present invention may also beprovided with a surface for reducing vibration impact force between acasing of the disk drive and the storage disk by reducing peak shock orvibration levels as caused by an impact to the casing. Moreover, theairflow adjusting mechanism may also be provided with at least onefunction selected from an anti-static function, a bias regulatingfunction, an electromagnetic-interference shielding function and aradio-frequency-interference shielding function, for the disk drive.

EXAMPLE

In a 8.89 cm (3.5-inch) hard disk drive having the basic configurationshown in FIG. 1, the storage disks 16 were rotated at the speed of 10000rpm, and the vibration in vertical direction (along the axis of thedrive shaft 28) caused in the suspension arm 26 located at the upper endwas measured with a laser displacement meter for both the structureaccording to this invention (FIG. 7) having the thin-film member 38mounted on the upper surface of each suspension arm 26 and theconventional structure lacking the thin-film member 38. As a result, thevibration of 46.83 μm developed in vertical direction for the suspensionarm 26 at the upper end of the conventional structure, while thevibration amplitude was suppressed to 15.47 μm for the structureaccording to this invention.

As evident from the foregoing description, according to this invention,there is provided a disk drive for writing and reading data into andfrom storage disks, wherein a highly reliable air-flow adjustingmechanism can be mounted inexpensively and easily which is capable ofeffectively suppressing especially the effect that the vibration causedby the air flow has on the storage disks, by adjusting the air flowcaused around the storage disks rotating at high speed.

Especially, with a disk drive having a suspension arm extending alongthe recording surface of the storage disks and rotatable about asupporting shaft, the turbulence of the air flow caused by the throughhole or the notch, formed in the suspension arm to reduce the moment ofinertia can be directly prevented.

1. A disk drive comprising: a rotatable storage disk having a recordingsurface; an actuator carrying a head section to be opposed to saidrecording surface of said storage disk and causing said head section toperform a tracking operation relative to said recording surface; and anair-flow adjusting mechanism for adjusting an air flow generated aroundsaid storage disk due to a rotation of said storage disk, said air-flowadjusting mechanism comprising a thin-film member attached to a surfaceof said actuator to cover a desired contour portion of said actuator,said thin-film member acting to stabilize the air flow along saidcontour portion wherein said thin-film member includes a tubularheat-shrinkable resinous film layer, said thin-film member being fixedlyattached to the surface of said actuator by a heat shrinkage of saidheat-shrinkable resinous film layer.
 2. The disk drive of claim 1,wherein said actuator includes a pivotable suspension arm extendingalong said recording surface of said storage disk, and wherein saidthin-film member is fixedly attached to a surface of said suspension armto cover a contour portion of said suspension arm.
 3. The disk drive ofclaim 2, wherein a through hole is formed in said contour portion ofsaid suspension arm, and wherein said thin-film member covers saidthrough hole.
 4. The disk drive of claim 1, wherein said thin-filmmember includes a resinous film layer and an adhesive layer attached toone surface of said resinous film layer, said thin-film member beingfixedly attached to the surface of said actuator through said adhesivelayer.
 5. The disk drive of claim 1, wherein said thin-film memberincludes a vibration damping polymer layer for reducing vibration and/orshock levels of said actuator.
 6. A thin-film member incorporated, as anair-flow adjusting mechanism, in a disk drive of claim
 1. 7. A method ofproducing a disk drive including an air-flow adjusting mechanism foradjusting an air flow generated around a storage disk in rotation,comprising: (i) providing an actuator carrying a head section so as tobe opposed to a recording surface of a storage disk; (ii) providing aheat-shrinkable thin-film member having a shape and a dimension forenabling said thin-film member to cover a desired contour portion ofsaid actuator after a heat shrinkage of said thin-film member; (iii)arranging said thin-film member at a position for covering said contourportion of said actuator; and (iv) heating said thin-film member toshrink, so as to fixedly attach said thin-film member to a surface ofsaid actuator while covering said contour portion of said actuator.